 Joe is an incredible, incredible man. He meant so much to Columbia. He meant so much to West Columbia. He meant so much to the state of South Carolina. Governor Sanford, thank you for being here this morning. Thank you to all elected officials who are here today. Friends and family, it's so good to see y'all. Thank y'all all for coming out. As a state as a region, we're all thankful for the work that Governor Sanford and Joe did in his time at the Department of Commerce, the great work on behalf of our state and our region. He has such an impact on the broad scale, but he had even more of an impact on the local scale. He worked very hard to improve his hometown of Columbia. He worked so hard to get us going over in West Columbia. He understood that everything that was good for Columbia was good for West Columbia, the towns around here. He worked to bridge the gaps between our communities and encouraged us to work together. I can't think of a better stretch of road in this state to remember Joe Taylor by then right here. He was a literal bridge between our communities that provided development, redevelopment, and revitalization to all of us, and he always sought improvement in all of us. That's me as a as an elected official talking about him. I can't tell you how impressed I was to know Joe Taylor as a man. I think it's equally important to remember that. He took time with people. He helped to develop people. He pushed for change in systems and in governments, but he pushed for change in people and he left a generation of leaders that he touched that are going to help push his visions forward. I'm so excited that we're recognizing this as the Joe Taylor way. I try to conduct business in that way myself, the way that he showed me the things that he explained that were important, and I hope we'll all do that going forward. Thank you all for being here this morning. I'm going to hand it off to Mayor Rickenman. Good morning everybody to Amanda, Ann, Beach, and John, to all our our invited guests, family, and friends. You know we're here to celebrate and honor and give thanks for Joe Whirl, Taylor, Jr. You know he was a husband, a father, a friend, secretary of commerce, councilman, author, pie judge, we can't forget that. Foodie, hunter, organizer, promoter, but most of all he was a builder, and I'm not talking about the businesses he built, the houses he built, the offices he built. He was a builder of people in collaboration. Joe built relationships through food and fellowship as we know was the source of his joy, but he gave so much and those relationships were about the resources and the connections, the emails, the articles, the books, the meetings, the connections, the dinners, and most of all his opinion, and he had a few of those. But Joe told me something several years ago and I've never forgotten it. He said you know God blessed me with two hands and I'm going to use one of them to support my family and I'm gonna need the other one to support our community and people. He loved this community more than anything else. He chose to bridge the gap between West Columbia and Columbia as the start of a regional approach because he believed we were stronger as a region together than we were separated and he saw that. He knew our biggest negative as a region was collaboration and he did everything in his power to pull that together. As we know he did more in his short period of time than most of us will do collectively in our lifetime. He loved these cities with with so much passion. It's food, it's culture, it's beauty. He was detail oriented as we all know. He could be very picky when it came to what he thought something should look like in appearance but at the end of the day he was right. We should always put our best foot forward and we should always push to be number one. His dedication to our community will never be forgotten but I was in Washington recently and I was leaving the White House and I saw a sign that said leadership is not a position or an appointed appointment. It's about action and example. Well I'm going to tell you Joe Earl Taylor Jr. was that person action and example. Thank you. Well now here from House Representative Micah Kasky. Good morning. Thank you all for being here. Over the last seven years or so I've had the privilege to share an office with Joe and among the many opinions he would share were nuggets of wisdom. One of which was politicians always forget when they're giving brief remarks about the brief part and so with that in mind I'll echo what Mayor's Miles and Rickman have shared with you and that's what Joe represents to this community. A bridge between the bridge over a river that can help all of us grow together can build the community can help us to continue to advance and so you may ask what is it about a road sign that matters and I'm not sure the answer is self-evident but if you think about what it can be it's a cause for somebody to look up and ask who is that guy? Who is Joe Earl Taylor Jr. and those answers are inspiration. Those answers are encouragement and hopefully a focus that will enable us all here in the Middle East to continue to grow and develop. So I'm glad to see you all here. Welcome to West Columbia. Thank you for the opportunity to be with you and I hope you have a great day. We're now here from Representative, I'm sorry, Senator Nicky Setzler. Thank you very much to Joe's family I want to say thank you for allowing me to do this today. As we stand here today and I look at this group of people it's self-evident the impact that Joe Taylor had on South Carolina. We all knew him as Joe, Amanda lovingly called him Joey and I never forgot that she called him Joey. How do you describe a man like Joe Taylor? He was a visionary. He was a man who saw things that the rest of us never envisioned could be accomplished or done. Joe Taylor was a doer. He didn't talk about doing things. He did things. He was passionate. He was relentless. He was intelligent. He was opinionated as has been referred to but he also sought others' opinions and he accomplished more than we can ever imagine. Joe Taylor was a change agent. Just look around you today at the impact that he's had not only on South Carolina while he was Secretary of Commerce and bringing such entities as Boeing to South Carolina but look at the city of Columbia and the recent development with the Finley Park and the revitalization of it. The railroad tracks on Rosewood. Look at the city of West Columbia on Meeting Street where he came and developed part of Meeting Street and had the vision for the rest of it. Look at St. Ann's Alley and what he did there which nobody whatever envision would be done there and how successful it was. Joe Taylor was a loving individual. He loved his family. He loved his community. He loved his state. He loved Wofford College and yes he loved his Cherokee Plantation. Joe Taylor was a chef. A foodie. And he loved talking about food and he could take you to the finest restaurant or he could take you to the deepest hole in the wall place to eat in South Carolina and everybody knew him wherever you went. Joe Taylor was a friend. He was a friend to everybody and if he was your friend he was your friend forever. Joe Taylor was courageous when you think about Joe Taylor's battle with cancer. He set a monumental example for the rest of us of how to face adversity and deal with it and keep going and I will never forget that about him. Joe Taylor never forgot his roots. He never forgot where he came from. He always talked about his family. He talked about the people that he dealt with and as he went up that ladder of success he reached back and took people with him as he went along that path. He was friends with everybody from the president of the United States to the guy who was standing and working on the side of the interstate. Joe Taylor saw no difference in people. Joe Taylor respected each individual and each person. Joe Taylor was impactful. Just look around. Look at what he's done for this community for Columbia. We give thanks to God for Joe Taylor's life, his friendship and his impact. Mayor Miles will you come? There was one part of Joe that I forgot to mention and we're about to break out and leave out of here. One of the things that impressed me most after he moved over here and put his office over in West Columbia. If I ever needed to meet with Joe to talk with Joe about anything I could wait until the first part of the morning the next day. I walk my dog down there every morning and I could always catch Joe first things in the morning outside of his buildings walking the block including parts that he didn't know and picking up trash in his parking lot because he wanted to put the best face forward for folks who came to see him and for our community and I think that says as much about a man as anything. No matter how far he reached on that latter success he was never above doing or caring about the small things and I think that's an important lesson for all of us to keep in mind as we go forward.